5 Seconds of Summer archive

Calm down, kids. The Australian boy band 5 Seconds of Summer has not been banned from future performances at the Spokane Arena.

The band played to about 4,000 very enthusiastic fans on Tuesday night. Near the end of the set, drummer Ashton Irwin twice called fans down from their seats and urged them to fill the floor. The problem with that, said arena manager Matt Gibson, is that having too many people on the floor is not only dangerous, but it creates “a bad fire marshal situation where we have the floor over capacity.” When arena staff kept people in their seats, the mostly teenage fans were not happy.

Fans turned to social media to vent their frustrations.

Twitter user castaway (@fivesosaf101) wrote “just gained so much respect for @5SOS putting their fans first and telling them to fill the floor. #SLFLSPOKANE”

There are others:

amber ‏@infraredmgc5sos are such legends for bringing fans onto the floor and getting banned from the venue in spokane

Y ‏@TheIrwinFiles 5SOS being banned from Spokane just adds to the list of proofs that they love their fans so much.

And as one father, Clark Peterson, posted on Facebook – a post that has been shared multiple times on Twitter – “I’m sure the boys in the band will get a talking to from their lawyers, but it was the most rock and roll thing I’ve seen at a rock concert in a long, long time. Rock and roll isn’t dead, it lives with a bunch of Aussie boys!”

Irwin himself tweeted: “I always just want the fans too be as close as possible… The concerts are about you. Always. Rock on”

In fact, Gibson said, 5 Seconds of Summer’s security staff had briefed the arena folks earlier in the day, and asked the crew to keep fans safe. “Our staff did exactly what they were supposed to do in their professional manner and held people into their seating sections,” Gibson said. “Young people being as they are, and I have two daughters, so I know how dramatic situations escalate, a lot of tears and a lot of screaming resulted.”

But in the end, Gibson said, 5 Seconds of Summer’s security team thanked the arena crew for doing its job.

“It was a situation in which we were faced with a very difficult situation,” he said. “We want everyone to have a good time, but all that would have needed to happen is one young lady trip on the stairs and she gets trampled by three dozen other kids rushing the stage.”

And contrary to rumors on social media, 5 Seconds of Summer hasn’t been banned from future appearances at Spokane Arena.